UK blames Iran for airbase plot, sanctions two Iranian nationals

Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said that a suspected plot targeting Royal Air Force (RAF) base Fairford was “almost certainly” directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), raising the diplomatic stakes over the largely unexplained incident for which Tehran has denied any responsibility. “We will not tolerate these threats on our soil,” Burnham told parliament on Monday, adding that the government, “will crack down on Iran’s use of criminal networks, using our full range of powers to target them and their funding streams”. “We will bring further sanctions to restrict the capacity of Iran and the IRGC to do us harm”, he said.